Never really liked the yellow symbol but am I seeing this right, are the undies gone? I guess I can live with that trade

“El Gaucho and Knight and Squire… I can’t think of less interesting guest stars in my opinion.”

Cheeks the Toy Wonder.

I’ve been waiting a while now for the right moment to jump on to a Batman book. I think I’ve found it. Finch on Batman? I’m there.

For the love of everything…no more Bat titles, please.
You’re ruining the market by stealing the spotlight for more interesting DC characters to get their own titles.
The current Bat books are enough.

Hate the belt buckle (I still would prefer the streamlined belt of the ’70s and ’80s), but overall like the look.

Yes there is a God the real Bat suit return No more of the gay looking batsuit the Yellow symbol Is back now he no longer looks like a EMO man

“Dick Grayson is one of The Batmen.”

Sure. Why not? Because Batman is just a friggin’ logo, and anybody can be Batman.

Confused? Why worry? They’ll make sure none of the other characters use the names “Bruce” or “Dick,” so, when it all gets re-printed in the trade, you can just pretend it’s the real Batman, anyway.

This Batman Family B.S. has got to END!

Tell me when one of these writers, with their great plans for something “new and different,” decide to start hacking away at sidekicks. THOSE are the only deaths in comics I’m interested in!

Batman is Bruce Wayne. Period. Quit mucking around.

While I mostly like Morrison’s work and think he’s certainly a different writer than most everyone else in the mainstream medium, he does return to certain ideas.

In addition to the seeming similarity between X-Corporation and Batman, Inc, that Michael notes another reused idea from New X-Men: main nemesis is dispatched in the first arc only to return as a seeming ally in a mask that fully covers his face. So far, it hasn’t played out the same, however, so that’s ok.

Man… that supporter… it looks like a giant camel toe…

Otherwise, that painting up there is pretty sweet.

In addition to Batman, Batman & Robin, Batman: Confidential, Detective, Streets of Gotham (not to mention Superman/Batman, Sirens of Gotham, Red Robin, Birds of Prey) do we really need Batman, Inc., & Batman: The Dark Knight? And, let’s hope not, but we’ll probably be seeing a book called BatmEn.

“Supple is the word. It’s really weird. Batman can take anything. You can do comedy Batman, you can do gay Batman…it all works. It something intrinsic to the character. It ‘s so strange and amazing.” – Grant Morrison

Trouble is, that isn’t exactly true.

You CAN do comedy Batman. On “Saturday Night Live.”

You CAN do gay Batman. If you’re Joel Schumacher.

You CAN do time-traveling, dinosaur-riding Batman. If you’re twelve.

The idea that all of these ARE Batman is false. None of these is Batman, and when you put any of these in the comic book titled “Batman,” you’re just wanking around.

Frank Miller did not radicalize Batman. That’s a myth. The last radical change to Batman – that stuck, that worked – was Julius Schwartz’s, when, as Editor in the frickin’ 70s, he decided the sci-fi, whack-job ideas that Morrison favors were too silly for Batman.

It was a REJECTION of those ideas, not an embrace of them, that saved Batman from obscurity. There’s a reason that’s THE Batman that has succeeded in other media.

Grant Morrison is an artistic dude who walks around in vinyl trousers and talks about magic. He’s got a huge cult of appreciative fans, and he’s riding a zeitgeist of “let’s throw our feces at the wall and see what sticks.”

When the Death and Legacy Fad – franchising is for burger joints, you half-wits – runs its course, and Batman returns to the essentials – um, Gotham City, believable HUMAN activity in a slightly hyper-real environment, detective work, vigilantism – Grant Morrison’s run will have had the same impact as the earthquake or Az-Bats.

That is, none.

Also not a fan of the yellow oval, but…if you’re gonna incorporate, I guess it makes for a more recognizable trademark-friendly logo.

So the yellow oval returns, and people scream Adam West?!? Ha.

Nowhere in that article does it suggest Morrison is trying to recreate an “Adam West vibe.” In fact, it seems more like a cross between the beginnings of Batman Begins and the new Brave and the Bold animated series.

Truth is I’m pretty ambivalent on the whole “yellow oval” vs. “no yellow oval” debate. And as long as Batman is primarily gray, I don’t care if his cape is black, charcoal, navy blue, or bright blue. I also don’t care if he has trunks or a utility belt with pouches or canisters. However, it does seem a bit much to feature the exact same bat-logo on both his chest and belt buckle. (And I’m not too sure about the “raised” chest logo, but whatever…)

Anyway, consider me psyched for Batman, Inc.

…and ready to laugh at anyonw who only associates the yellow oval with a television actor who portrayed Batman just three years from several decades’ worth of stories that featured Batman sporting the yellow oval. Ya know, including the classic O’Neil/Adams and Englehart/Rogers collaborations.

This is the perfect cap to three years of trite and directionless blue-sky storytelling. The progressively-retarding yellow symbol and Batman Forever belt perfectly illustrate the lack of editorial vision on this. The bat books have been practically impalpable since Grant came on board, which breaks my heart because I so loved his JLA work. We’ve been forced to deal with Devils (literally) that are, and are not Thomas Wayne, obscure and overplayed Zur-en-arrh homages, time travel, gods, clones, cavemen, a Joker that can, somehow, take a bullet to the forehead and walk away and to top it of, a SON with the most gaudy, cliche’ name possible: Damian. While, as a book (conceptually) Batman and Robin was much fun and “clearer,” I’m sorry DC, but this amount of 50’s-esque cacophonous crap does not a modern Batman make. I agree with Grant, the beauty of Bats is in his versatility and ability to stretch beyond his core mission yet remain grounded in the roots of his origin. Sadly, without you noticing, him and his “immediate family” have been stretched beyond the point of recognition.

Remove the belt and what’s the suit look like? A guy in long dingy underwear wearing black boots and gloves. The codpiece is obscene and I’m not sure what’s up with the piping all over his suit. Is he wearing couch upholstery? Apparently the leggings protion of the suit is like over-sized pantyhose. He keeps having to pull it up into the joint of his leg to prevent drooping. Holy Bat-wedgie.

“Climatic arc”??? He can control weather now? Also the words “first season” makes my wallet happy I have a few years to save cash for comics that are actually good reads.

New suit, no trunks on the suit????? Isn’t this is a just a retread of the Prodigal, Knightquest, knightfall storyline, bruce wayne returns, comes back in a new suit. I wish we could go back to the Grant & Breyfogle, Aparo & Starlin days when writers just told damn good stories with the characters without big multi-issue “ARC’s and events.”

Jim they do tell good story you guys just want everything like the lame ass dark knight movie which made batman a joke again

Thumbs down on the return of the “trademarked” chest symbol.

If it ain’t broke…

I think this comes out in November, not October. Someone should tell DC.

@Marduckus
The yellow oval debuted with Bruce, and his utility belt has always been yellow, so I dunno what you mean by “Bruce ain’t a yellow kind of guy.” I’m hesitant to call your opinion “wrong,” but you sure don’t make it easy.

Anyways, this is happening. Deal with it.

@Mack Preach on, mate!

So the main Earth Batman will wear the Earth-One costume?

from wikipedia:

‘Franchising, a business method that involves licensing of trademarks and methods of doing business.’

there, not that scary is it? under ‘trademarks’ we can include iconography and under ‘methods of doing business’, gadgetry, approach, skill sets, etc. now i want to reverse the question – why wouldn’t batman want to franchise his ‘business’? he wants to save lives, right? he wants to stop evil-doing? he knows his trademarks and methods are effective, afterall he’s been road testing them for however many years now, and wouldn’t it makes sense for them to reach a wider market? he understands the power of symbols – ‘…superstitious cowardly lot… i will become a bat…’ – and the air of the apparently supernatural (and what could be more apparently supernatural than a batman who can launch from the shadows *anywhere*) as effective deterrents….. not to mention the fact that batman inc definitively answers the question of ineffectuality that’s dogged the brand all these years….

i think the case FOR batman incorporated is far stronger than the one against.

now try to convince me otherwise.

without anyone getting weird.

Looks horrible. Morrison and DC still messing up my childhood hero.

@ Mack
My recommendation – take two valium and chill. Life is too short to get this riled up about a fictional character wearing spandex.

i’ll just carry on regardless. if someone wants to engage with the argument – there is one, i posted it – at any stage, do go ahead.

one concern latent to this thread is, i think, that the ‘branding’ of batman will inevitably lead to a severe damping down of the elements that make batman such a fearful avenger of teh night!!!11etc: mystery, grittiness and, err, for want of a better word, creepiness – that it will result in a *brighter*, more conspicuous form of bat-heroism. tentatively i might suggest that this won’t be the case. as discussed above, bruce wayne knows what makes his business model work, and it’s unlikely he’d want to jettison those elements when exporting his mission. this won’t result in a batman advertising on billboards or during the prime time slot on ITV1. everything will remain as it is, tonally and stylistically, only there’ll be more of it.

there’ll still be alleys, psychotic clowns, rain and KRAKTS! basically.

one other thing, because it’s important: morrison is using the term ‘franchising’ as a metaphor – obviously there’s a huge distinction between fighting supervillains and selling subway sandwiches and he knows it. i think some of the excitement surrounding this new bat-event is a knee jerk reaction to the set of associations this term arrives loaded with, many of which have nothing to do with the actual direction the book will take.

Batman in the shadows stalking the Joker and his
henchman. Suddenly, Batman jumps into action with
a black bat symbol no yellow oval. He captures the
Clown Prince of Crime again.
Batman in the shadows stalking Two-Face and his
henchman. Suddenly Batman jumps into action…….
Seems like thats what alot of you want to read every month
in the Batman titles. I’m glad for Grant Morrison at least
he’s trying something different.

Holy cow, this is why I’ve recently quit internet forums.

For the record, my favorite batman look is belt with pouches and plain buckle, black symbol with no yellow oval, and blue trunks. Trunks, not undies.

However, I refuse to throw a fit over a costume change that will probably change again within a year or two. Life is too short.

And I get SO sick of people who feel like they “own” something that someone else is not allowed to change. It happened with the new Star Trek movie, the new Sherlock Holmes movie, etc. People who claim to be superfans get all pissy because “their” -insert character here- has been utterly destroyed in every way.

Get over yourselves. You don’t own Batman. DC does. If they see fit to run with a story line, then, guess what, it’s officially Batman, whether you like it or not.

By all means, vote with your dollars and don’t buy it if you don’t like it. But don’t make us laugh by telling DC what they can and can’t do. It’s their property.

Yanick Paquette’s version of the new suit
http://dcu.blog.dccomics.com/files/2010/08/batmaninc001000.jpg

Yellow-Oval & Yellow Belt.

Eat it, haters.

@ Mad Hatter.

You forgot, “Batman jumps out of the shadows and captures Poison Ivy again. Batman jumps out of the shadows and captures The ventriloquist…oh, wait, he’s dead.”

Morrison is trying something different? Really.

“Dick Grayson jumps out of the shadows and captures some dude in a mask who might be Thomas Wayne but probably isn’t again. Damian Wayne jumps out of the shadows and says something snarky again. Dick Grayson jumps out of the shadows and says something uncharacteristic so no one can figure out he’s just pretending again.”

No offense, Jervis, but even Morrison has admitted he isn’t coming up with anything NEW. “Giving time-travel a more grounded context.” THAT’S what he said! Who’s being stupid, here?

Time travel can’t be “grounded.” Time travel is a FANTASY concept. The more you try to “ground” fantasy with “realism,” the more you exaggerate its ridiculousness.

Grant Morrison should go write time-travel stories in the pages of Booster Gold. That’s what that’s there for.

He can’t write detective fiction to save his arse.

For the record, I could care less about yellow ovals or underwear on the outside. There’s nothing to that “re-design” that merits any attention. It won’t even be around as long as the all-black, long ears version was in the 90s.

The piping is idiotic. The man decided, late in his crime-fighting years, that seams made him look more bat-like?

Search your heart. You know it’s true. As the preacher said above, Batman is off the rails. In a couple years, DC will admit the Grant Morrison run all happened on Earth Pi.

Enough, enough, enough of the silver age love fest…it’s over. You cannot return to your childhood a million times. All of these characters must progress somewhat over time. I’m just sooo sick and tired of these rehashed stories from the 60′s, 70′s and early 80′s. I enjoyed those concepts when I was a kid…but I do not feel the need to re-read them in “Morrison’s” style. I AM OUT!

Grant Morrison = comicbook cancer. I will never again be conned into buying his stories. Judging by the looks of the “art” for the cover, Bruce has returned and decides to start taking HGH and using the Cream & the Clear? Uggh. Thanks, DC, for allowing these “creators” to shit all over your properties. Along with Wonder Woman and Superman, I have been able to add Batman to three great characters that you no longer publish. Sure, you continue to pump out those books, but those aren’t the characters they’re SUPPOSED to be.

Love this redesign. I’m onboard.

Oops…typo,

Instead of typing “but his sole lingered to fight crime as a true creature of the night,”

I meant to type “but his SOUL lingered to fight crime as a true creature of the night,”

My mistake.

I wish they had a temporary edit feature, after posting a reply, but I suppose I will just have to pay closer attention to my English, grammar and composition next time.

I really hate that this is the sort of thing that any bold new direction in comics generates. I’m uncertain of it myself, but I’m not so possessive that I think that it will “ruin” the character or it’s “Batman in name only” or any of that nonsense.

Sure, new directions for characters often tick me off, but I know that there will be a different direction a few years down the line anyway which will render it moot – so why worry? Didn’t enjoy New Krypton’s space-traveling Superman? Try the new “earth-wandering” Superman in Grounded! Don’t like that? There’ll be another reimagining in a couple of years.

(Note that I wasn’t really impressed with either direction above.)

And I like this better than the alternative, which is keeping the characters entirely static. Seriously? Batman punches the Joker, again. The Joker does something horrible, again. Batman foils an armed robbery, again. I can read better stories about all these things. At least if you offer me something I’ve never seen before (and though Morrison might not be adding anything boldly new to Batman, he’s cleverly playing familiar tropes in different contexts to create a unique effect), it’ll engage me more than “Batman puts the Joker in another body cast, but can’t bring himself to kill him, again”).

There’s nothing worse than being afraid of something new because you’re worried it might fail.

On another note…

I’m SO very glad to see Finch drawing Batman! He was born to illustrate the Dark Knight and after seeing his art in the 1st issue of his run on Moon Knight, I always hoped that he would one day draw a 6, 8 or 12-issue limited series, as Jim Lee did for the HUSH storyline.

I can’t wait to see David’s art in this series and based on the picture featured in this article, I know that Mr. Finch is going to deliver.

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